Customer Reviews

The Breeds of Man

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This book has 2 basic themes--what could happen if scientists aren't careful in engineering cures for disease, and the reaction of average people to a next possible step in human evolution. The book starts out with a near-future society that is ravaged by AIDS, and scientists engineer a cure. Part of the cure, however, renders women sterile to a second pregnancy by a man of the same blood type as the first (eliminating the chances of another child with the same man). To find a cure for *this* problem, scientists create an altered human, the Mark II. Unknown to them until these new children reach puberty, the children are cyclical hermaphrodites, going from male to female and back again every other month. Society's response is typical and intolerant. I won't give away the ending, but it's a fast-paced, solid science fiction novel with a terrific message that isn't preachy!

The AIDS epidemic is spreading beyond control as scientists struggle to find a way to stop the epidemic which has claimed more than half the world. After years of research, a "cure" is developed and administered to all infected without any previous testing as to side-effects.
The cure totally annhialates the AIDS virus and causes virtually no problems.
But the children born to those cured from AIDS are different, they are the "Mark Twos."

Following is the back cover text:
"The Mark Twos were a breed apart, similar to other humans in every way but one: a survival adaptation different from any seen before. When it was discovered how remarkable that adaptation was, the implications were staggering...
"Because in a world where fear and suspicion reigned, where disease limited population growth, and where survival of the human race depended on a cure for that disease, the Mark Twos were the answer: not a cure, but a new kind of humanity."

This book is an excellent tale surging with emotion and confrontations. The writing style is pure poetry and flows from word to word. I could not put the book down yet often wanted to throw it across the room! Such response in the reader proves an author is worth a good look.

This is one of those books that I've read more than once. Thought provoking and thoughtful, "The Breeds of Man" raises questions about gender identity and what it means to be human. I highly recommend this book.

I guess it all boils down to the definition of evolution. If it is the way an organism responds and adapts to its environment over long period of time then what is presented here does not make the cut. Is a new phenomenon caused by bioengineering the same thing?

The science aside it is a good read. It is similar in subject - but not plot - to COMMITTMENT HOUR (James Gardner) which casts a future Earth in which folks "decide" which sex they want to remain the rest of their lives. Fast paced action in BREEDS but too many characters for my taste and the politicians and religious "leaders" were rather two-dimensional...no deep philosophy here over such an epic happening. Even though the ending was predictable it was still a good read.

This book was painfully thought-provoking. The situation that is the basis of the entire structure of the story is potentially real ... and so is the typical scientific response. The results of this scientific response ... a "cure" for AIDS ... is where the story begins to take off. While based in the fictional world of a near future setting, the responses from the characters are very realistic and recognizable. Yet, this is not just a simple drama; good, solid sci-fi writing abounds. A good read, but not just for entertainment value. Some of the characters will really make you grind your teeth. The ending of the story is reasonable and realistic, fiting what we know about the characters as they progress through the story line.

F.M. Busby's The Breeds of Man was written in 1988. Many of his expectations for what was then the future are surprising not just because they're wrong, but because it took me a fair amount of effort to remember that back in 1988 I wouldn't have dismissed them as silly.
Most of the book takes place in an unspecified year that is no earlier than 2005 and probably no later than 2020. One of the most striking features of the story is that a powerful person is able to exert pressure on the news media to kill a story that at least one reporter is working on. The story would have generated enough publicity that in 1988 it would have been somewhat doubtful whether it could have been suppressed, but it would have been the kind of possibility that in 1988 I would have expected to generate some entertaining debates. But today, the idea that the reporter couldn't advance her career by taking the story to an alternate news channel seems too foreign for even a moderately crazy conspiracy theorist to propose.
The book is not particularly bad as science fiction goes, but it's full of places where I'm almost shocked at how primitive the flow of information seems. And when I think back, I remember that for more than half my life I lived in that primitive world.

Truly a wonderful story, with plenty to make the reader think. Busby has crafted a story based so closely on the real world, that all the events feel as though they could happen. He is a fabulous storyteller, and I highly recommend that anyone who likes his work read it.